How To Rip Tunes From Vinyl To MP3 (Without Them Sounding Like Junk)

From black disk to hard disk... how to rip your old vinyl successfully to MP3

If you're returning to DJing as a digital DJ but still have a vinyl collection, or are considering making the switch but are scared about what on earth you're going to do about your "vinyl mountain", then ripping your old records to MP3 is probably high on your priority list.

Luckily, with some planning and a bit of understanding, such MP3s can sound fantastic.

This isn't a list of instructions, as everyone's circumstances will be different. More, it's an introduction to the topic and the issues, with some tips to help you get it right, if and when you decide to go ahead and so some ripping.

There are 4 stages to the process that you need to consider:

You have to decide the best way to go about it depending upon what equipment you already have

You need to install ripping software on your computer

You need to do the ripping successfully

You need to turn your ripped music into MP3s that are fit to join your collection

We'll take these one at a time:

1. What equipment do I need?

You have 3 basic choices (there are plenty of other ways of doing it, but these are the main ones). What you go for depends upon your budget, and what you already own.

The Stanton T.92 USB turntable is a good choice for vinyl ripping.

1. A dedicated USB Turntable
If you want just one piece of equipment to do the whole job, then go for a USB turntable. This is a special record deck with a USB lead to plug into your PC. It has all the circuitry built in to it that you need to send a digital signal to your PC.

The first thing to say is: Avoid the USB turntables you see in magazines and retail outlets, from brands you've never heard of and at low prices. Would you use one of those in a night club? No.

Then don't use one to do a one-and-only rip of your favourite records. Not if you expect the MP3s to sound good, at any rate.

2. Normal turntable plus mixer and sound card
If you already own a turntable, you may already own a mixer. You may also own a sound card. But unless your sound card has audio inputs as well as audio outputs (and most DJ sound cards don't), you will need a separate sound card.

What you do is feed the "record out" or the "master out" from your DJ mixer into the sound card, which converts it to a digital signal and feeds it into your PC via a USB or FireWire cable (it's usually one of these, anyway).

Your DJ mixer has an RIAA phono pre-amp built into it to make the signal from your needle loud enough for the sound card to do its job, and really that's all we're using the mixer for here.

Make sure your mixer's pre-amp is good quality (do some Googling...) and choose a decent sound card. The minimum tech spec is 16bit/44.1kHz, which is the equivalent of CD quality, everything else notwithstanding.

If you don't own a sound card and want to buy one you can use for DJing too, it is possible to get a sound card that will do both jobs for you - there's a couple in our recent DJ sound card round-up that also have inputs, for instance.

3. Normal turntable plus dedicated vinyl ripping sound card
If you have a decent turntable but no mixer (or a rubbish mixer that you don't want to subject your vinyl for eternity to), and especially if you're going to have to buy a sound card anyway for your DJing, you may as well go for one of the models that has the ability to rip straight from vinyl as well as its DJ features.

The Mixvibes U-MIX44 is a good value sound card for ripping straight from vinyl and general DJ use too.

These sound cards effectively have the vinyl pre-amp but and the bit that turns your signal into digital to send down the USB to the PC, all in one.

Again, if you're going to need a sound card anyway for your DJing, look for one that can do both functions for you such as the Native Instruments 4 (US$199 / £154 / €182) or the Mixvibes U-MIX44 (US$99 / £72 / €85).

Alternatively, if you are never going to need a DJ sound card and simply want one for ripping vinyl, a popular record-only models is the Art USB Phono Plus (US$66), which I have got and is excellent. The minimum tech spec to look for is 16bit/44.1kHz - the same as CD sound quality.

Don't do this...
The more astute may have noticed that we keep carping on about "sound cards with inputs". Hang on, you may be saying, my laptop has a Line-in. Why not feed the signal into that?

Just don't. Laptop sound cards are not optimised for recording well through 1/8" line-in jacks. Put the idea from your mind and let's move on...

Of course, if you have a desktop computer with a good dedicated sound card then that's different, but if you have a laptop with integrated sound, it won't be good enough.

2. Getting your ripping software

This records the input. The hands-down standard is Audacity. It's free, it's cross-platform, and it works well. You install it, get the settings right...

Playback Device: The computer's sound card

Recording Device: [the input from your sound card or the drivers that came with your USB deck]

"Software Play Through" box checked (this is what allows you to hear the audio as you record it)

...and you're ready to go.

Ripping software may come with your USB turntable or sound card. By all means give it a go. Follow your ears, though. It's not likely to be the best of the best, and Audacity does the job very well indeed. Some manufacturers have thrown the towel in and just point you to Audacity anyway, nowadays.

3. Doing the ripping

If your cartridge is cheap, buy an expensive one. If your needle is older than "nearly new", get a new one. If your leads are ropey, get hi-fi leads. If your kit can be earthed, earth it. If you're in a noisy, vibration-filled room, move to a quiet one. If people walk around near your turntable, move them (or the turntable).

Get the gist? This is your one chance to get this right. A decent, well-isolated turntable with a great cartridge and new needle will produce the best results. I used to live in a flat when every time a lorry thundered past, the record would jump out of the groove! Not a good place to rip vinyl. (Or do mixtapes, as I continually founds out...)

While we're at it, clean your records (unless they're just out of the plastic from the shop).

It's to get the recording level right. Levels should be as high as they'll go "in the green". If they flick into the red, it should be momentary and only slightly. This is important - too high, and the signal will "clip"; too low and any residual noise is proportionately louder to the music. The best advice I can give here is trial and error - and use your ears.

4. From raw ripped music to finished MP3

So you've hit "record", grabbed a file and hit "stop" at the end. You can now edit the silence away at the start and finish using Audacity, listen to check it sounds good, and save as an MP3.

(Audacity actually needs an extra external dll file to be able to export as MP3 - when you try to do so, it will give you further instructions. It's a 5-minute process to go to the web to finds and install it, then it's done forever.)

Keeping your meters in the green will stop harsh-sounding clipping.

Record your MP3s at 320kbps from Audacity and you'll be fine - set this in the preferences. Again, trust your ears.

So what next? I like to do the following (for vinyl rips and all other incoming music), and I'm including it here for completion's sake:

Run each tune through Platinum Notes 3. Platinum Notes 3 (US$98) corrects any pitch variations, gets the volume perfect, and does some other audio quality tricks. (As Platinum Notes prefers to work with WAV files, and can output MP3 320kbps files itself anway, I actually export as WAV from Audacity and let Platinum Notes encode the file as an MP3 for me when it's done its magic). You can also look at MP3Gain, a free way to "normalise" volume across your rips (and your whole collection).

Run each tune through Mixed in Key. Mixed in Key (US$58) simply adds key information for me. I mix in key nowadays, so for me this is an important addition. Rapid Evolution is a possible alternative, and as a bonus, it's free

Add artist, title, cover art etc - I use iTunes to do this manually, but there are lots of alternatives out there.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, ripping vinyl is not the same as ripping CDs, both in complexity and in time needed! I ripped 20% of my vinyl collection on converting to digital, and it took me all summer.

Still, I listened to some great music and pruned out some rubbish at the same time.

And once you've done it, you can put your old vinyl away somewhere safe, knowing that your digital versions are as good as they can be and that all the wonders of digital DJing now await you.

Have you got a mountain of vinyl to rip, or have you just done it? Made any mess-ups or got any extra tips? Please share with us in the comments.

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Comments

My way of doing it is I have one of my 1200s hooked up to my mixer, and the output of the mixer into the "line in" on my computer. I have a good sound card on the computer (desktop workstation), so I don't see the need for a USB sound card.

I usually use Sony Sound Forge. I'll record the audio in where it's not clipping, then I clean it up a tiny bit if needed. Generally if it's an older record that thus has some pops, I'll highlight them close-up, and then lower the volume on them by 6-9 db. I don't like muting them because it causes clicking sounds.

I'll also make sure there isn't any "air" sounds at the beginning or end. I trim the ends of the track closely and even fade in and fade out the beginning and end for 1/4 of a second or less. Simply again so there's no "pops" when you start or end the record.

I also like to add 1/2 a second of silence at the beginning, and 2 seconds at the end. Again, so there's no pop or anything.

After that, I'll normalize EACH CHANNEL SEPARARELY, then do the same with Sony's Wave Hammer plugin. After that I save it as a Wav file, and then run it through Platinum Notes before converting it to MP3 and doing the rest.

Other than that, it's the usual of adding the iD3 tag, album art if I want, and running it through MixMeister's BPM analyzer to get the tempo put in. Great tool.

I do have a question...is there anything in Audacity that's like the Wave Hammer plugin?

Being a hip hop producer first I always had at least one turntable around to sample my Dad's records. I use Pro Tools so I run it through my 12 channel mixer and stereo out into my Mbox and do all the editing to make it sound better than the original vinyl.

I figured recording all my vinyl is something you only want to do once in a lifetime so I decided that with the price of storage dropping each month I'd record all my vinyl at 96kHz/24 bit and then encode them to the lossless flac format so I could tag them properly. Why go to all that trouble and then compress them to mp3, I thought, some people think they can hear the difference, why take the risk?

I wasted a couple of hours one day using Audacity before I realized it wasn't recording at 96/24 only 96/16, even though it looks like it is. The flac encoder was suddenly getting compression rates that were too good to be true and my recordings were missing something I couldn't put my finger on.

I've yet to do any serious post processing on my rips over and above normalisation and click/pop removal so I'd be interested to hear what other people have done.

I have been ripping vinyl using a Technics sl-1200m3d, with a Grado Black Prestige cartridge going directly into Native Instruments Audio 4 dj phono-line in. I couldn't be happier with the results! As far as post production, some of my older records (house and techno) have been getting treatment with T-racks, using some different mastering pre-sets and adjusting appropriately.

One thing I wish this article would have expanded on is different methods for cleaning your records. I have been using Titebond II wood glue. A quick Google search will tell you everything you need to know, but word to the wise - do not use anything less than type II. It's nothing a reapplication of glue won't fix but it is a waste of time and money.

Also, forgot to mention here- i only play Wav files, i feel that harddrives arent that costly anymore so i dont bother using MP3's- never have been an MP3 fan.
So the conversion doesnt even come into question for me.

I second that..there is no need to day to buy or rip anything in a lossy format. made the mistake of buying a lot of my initial Beatport tracks in MP3, now I only buy AIFF. Please don't don't promote the dumbing down of musical quality. I honestly don't care about the argument that you can't hear a difference. The fact remains there IS a difference in the quality of the audio, despite what you say you can hear. Be good to your ears.

I couldn't agree more...mp3s are good for consumer use only but for professionals like a broadcast TV or Radio Station, uncompressed or lossless formats are highly recommended. 320kbps is good enough if you play it on your PC, Ipod etc and listen to it directly unlike in broadcasting business you have to limit quality degradation/ transmission/generation/ compression losses in sound quality. There is a loss of quality in compressing the file, soundcard filters, connection losses due resistance in analog connections, aerial transmission. So when you listen to the radio stations using mp3s you can really hear the difference.
As to transferring vinyl to digital formats, I use an analog Technics MK2 connect preamp output to my Tasacam Minidisk player/recorder which has analog and digital I/O. Using fiber optic cable(toslink)i connect the digital output to a Card Deluxe soundcard which also has a didgital input. I use Adobe Audition CS6 to record it and Izotope to clean the noise, clicks pops etc. The result is superb. I can even convert mono recordings to stereo using Izotope's Imaging plug-ins.

I use a Technics Turntable with a Ortofon Arkiv needle hooked into an Allen & Heath Mixer. From the mixer out I use high quality gold plated monster cables into my M-Audio sound card. Before I record my vinyl I make sure it's as clean as possible. I also make sure my turntable is perfectly leveled and on a flat surface. For recording I use Sound Forge and make sure my levels are set on the mixer. Once the recording is done I save the track with Artist - Title and remove any silence from the beginning and end. At this point I usually load it in my ipod so I can listen to it in full. If I here any loud pops or any skipping this gives me the chance to go back and fix it. I also run the track through a program called iZotope RX to remove minor pops and hissing. Finally, I run the track through Platinum Notes and Mixed in Key. I keep all my recorded vinyl in Wav format, but I like the suggestion of maybe converting a copy into mp3 and loading it into iTunes with Cover Art. Too bad Wav formats can't have cover art so I don't have to convert it again. This may seem like a long process, but if you love your vinyl and want the best recording possible, then use quality gear. One last thing, when recording I can't seem the get the channels perfectly balanced , but they are still close. Any suggestions?

Also, forgot to mention here- i only play Wav files, i feel that harddrives arent that costly anymore so i dont bother using MP3′s- never have been an MP3 fan.
So the conversion doesnt even come into question for me.

---

Gotta agree with you. The cost of a GB of desktop/laptop storage is so low, why would I settle for compressed audio? Nowadays, only on cell phones/MP3 players storage space may be a binding constraint.

Thus, when digitizing vinyl, I also prefer lossless audio. I use FLAC, mainly because it's more convenient than with WAV to use tags (so-called FLAC tags or, equivalently, Vorbis comments).

One thing that doesn't seem to get mentioned is keeping the levels out of the red during recording. As that WAV file is being gathered up by Sound Forge or Audacity, if you clip there isn't really anything to repair that WAV after the fact. In the old days (when tape was the Big Cheese in media) we would run the VU meters as close to zero as possible because we knew that a brief stab into the red wouldn't really destroy the overall sound. When doing digital rips, stay all green on the VUs and then do a normalize opeation in your software to get the levels up to where you want them before doing a conversion to MP3.

I known this may be old hat for some but there will be newbies that didnt learn this yet.

As for the actual conversion from analog to digital, Get the conversion out of the computer altogether. Use an external sound card at all times. When I started ripping my vinyl I used a simple Griffin iMic. Simple, cheap, did your basic 44.1kHz, 16 bit WAV file deal and sounded fine. If I were going to go back and do more, I'd probably opt for a higher res rip. In fact I have some old Mobile Fidelity discs in my collection... Bet those would really sound awesome @ 96khz/24bit!!

Hi Dennis, we always mention keeping the levels in the green. I prefer MP3Gain for normalising because it is non-destructive. And as we also say in the article, keep the A-to-D conversion away from the computer itself.

To Sameoldsong: It's not only about storage space though. It's about the variety of tags available including cover art, it's about the fact that smaller files are much easier to transfer and backup, especially in bulk. And it's about all that extra benefit with no discernable difference in sound quality.

Compression is not a bad idea per se - to my mind it just needs to be to the point where the file is as small as possible without anyone noticing what you've done.

It's like in graphic design - you can lower the quality of a JPG image to a fraction if its size without anyone noticing it isn't the original.

Originally posted by Jeff: One last thing, when recording I can’t seem the get the channels perfectly balanced , but they are still close. Any suggestions?

Jeff I'm not an expert on this subject but from my reading & experience I can say this...

1) Check & set balance on amp/mixer using CD or digital source
2) Use "S" shaped tone arm NOT a straight tone arm
3) Set anti-skate setting (NOT zero as for DJing/scratching)
4) Set correct angle & overhang of cartridge in head shell

1) I'd first check the mixer/amp. I'd play a CD or something through the mixer/amp and soundcard and record that. If the waveform is unbalanced on 1 channel then just adjust the balance on the mixer/amp till is is balanced.

2) You want to make sure you are using an "S" shaped (or called offset) tone arm. The straight tone arms hold better in the vinyl for scratching but has many times more error or channel distortion because of the arc and the angle that the stylus will sit in the vinyl.

3) DJ's and the DJ turntable manuals often say use zero anti-skate. Again this is best for scratching & back cueing to help the stylus from jumping out of the vinyl track but not for getting the best play quality when it comes to channel balance/distortion. Use anti-skate. After balancing and setting correct weight on tone arm for the cartridge you are using then it's usually the same gram ammount set on the anti-skate. Check the cartridge info.

4) You want to adjust the screws holding the headshell to the cart and set it to the correct overhang and then make the fine adjustments to the angle. There are some technical guides for this. Basically you want to get the length of your tone arm then use a guide like a 2 point protractor that you can print out to make sure the cart is set to the right angle at two given points on the turntable. Here is a website that has free printable 2 point protractors and guides/info.

Ok so lastly if you do want a little more backround here's what I've read... There are two channels, left and right on either side of the track wall in the vinyl grove. The needle sits in that track grove and you want it to sit in the centre to be balanced and have no balance distortion. If the needle has the wrong anti-skate for example then it will push more against one side and therefore make one channel louder or have more channel distortion. Ok so as the stylus moves from start to finish of the whole vinyl record it makes an arc shape. From what I've read once you've set the right angle of the cartridge there is always some section of the arc say for example towards the end of the record that the angle of the stylus won't sit 100% straight and in the centre of the track. You want to keep that to a minimum by setting the best possible angle for your tone arm length and stylus. I'm thinking that it's going to be nasty if your using an elliptical stylus and the angle is set badly or you're using a straight tone arm. I'm guessing that as the elliptical needle moves towards the end of the record it will be on the wrong angle more and more and digging a wider grove as well as being distorted. I will use elliptical for archiving because the sound quality is reportedly much better but I will make sure I spend the time to set the angle right. I will use spherical, tough needles for DJing to minimise record wear and breaking needles coz I know the anti-skate will be set to zero for DJing and I'll be wanting to scratch a bit. Probably the dual cantilever versions of the Ortofon's such as the Scratch and Elektro are the strongest of the spherical Ortofon DJ stylus range.

Jeff - One thing I just realised is that you said you're using the Ortofon Arkiv. This stylus comes in a concord model (all in one fixed cartridge & headshell) and in an OM model (standard head shell mount). So if you have the concord model it's all fixed and there isn't really any way to adjust the angle of the stylus. If you have the OM then of course it's just like any regular cartridge where you can adjust the angle with the two screws on the headshell mount. The same goes for all the Ortofon DJ Stylus range. I'd recommend not buying fixed all in one headshell & cartridge mounts such as Ortofon Concord or Sure WhiteLabel at least for the purpose of archiving your records so you can adjust the angle and get the best channel balance and sound quality.

IMO you should never use a belt-drive device to record into the computer.

I used ION USB Belt-drive but when it came to mixing the songs in Virtual DJ the Beats would go out of Phase i.e. the graphic wave and square that represented the position of a beat started to go out of sync/phase at the end of all the songs that were recorded using Belt-drive.
Did over a thousand songs before i realised there was an issue

Using Direct Drive i have no issues with the the beats going out of sync

Hi wonder if anyone can help. I'm converting my vinyl into wav format but the dj I know and the dj shop can't help. I have had to work it out from YouTube, so far I have Stanton decks and mixer. I have serato sl1. I have my decks plugged into a beringher audio interface then this is into my laptop. I'm recording into audacity which then goes into my libraries then I click and drag to serato. The problem I have is the quality is not the same as mp3's I have bought. The volume is not the same and the bass is not as crisp or loud. I'm not that flush so I can't keep trying cartridges or new interfaces etc. Not sure if I just need to clean the wav's up using another software or I'm not really doing it the best way. I borrowed a numark USB deck and it picked up every background noise??? Help me pleeeeese :0)

Please beware that lately loudness wars have kicked in, and music has been remastered to boost certain aspects such as bass.

If you want loudness (I'm against this btw), you need to compress the audio. If you just want the levels to reach the loudest can, you can normalise the audio so the loudest bits of the music reach the top without affecting the dynamic range.

Hi Vinny. Thanks for yr reply. My records are around year 2000 garage tracks. I just want the best quality sound and bass so that if I were to dj publicly the quality would not be compromised. Do I need a sound card u think? :0)

I digitise vinyl with my rane ttm 56 with equalizer on the middle and with traktor, you said to record with the mixer but how to have good bass medium and treble as on cd or digital edit.
Is the best way to record with traktor or within the line in on the computer and audacity ?

I'm a DJ in the States and I've so far ripped about 1,000 records so far with outstanding results...here's my take...

1. Before you undertake ripping your vinyl...look around and see if you have any of those same exact pressings on a store bought CD. Chances are you probably do. Especially you UK/Europe folks who got all those dope compilations.

2. Seriously think about investing in a record cleaner. A company called VPI makes an amazing one. ESPECIALLY for us older DJ's whose vinyl is coated in fingerprint oil, beer, smoke, ______, _______ and _______ residue from your boys' parties back in the day. This, I believe more than anything else, improves the overall sound quality of the original vinyl by sucking all the gunk out with a high powered vacuum. I have vinyl from 15 years ago that now sounds and plays like new. Seriously.

Good advice all! I've been doing it by running my new Stanton table into a "live input" on deck D on my Traktor S4, and just using Traktor's built-in recorder. I adjsut the track gain and recorder gain to get the levels right, use a little EQ if I want, hit record and play. Traktor exports the WAV for me automatically, and I keep it in that format.

Seems like everyone has some interesting tips for getting the best quality vinyl rips although there seems to be a large number of PC users here. I use my 20 year old Technics 1200's connected to an old school Gemini Platinum series DJ mixer. I plug the mixer output into my Event EZ Bus which is where the A/D magic happens and finally that is connected to my iMac. I just use Garageband to record into and that has worked great for me because I follow four basic rules when I rip vinyl. They are:

1. Start with new or newish needles.
2. Clean your records.
3. Watch your levels and learn to not pump the gain on every track.
4. Record to FLAC and then keep that as the master file so you can convert to any other format easily.

Garbage in still equals garbage out.

Ripping your entire vinyl collection or even part of it is a painstaking project that will take a lot of time. Phil is right about how much easier it is to rebuy most of it but before you do that, take some time and use the opportunity to learn how to make a really clean recording. It's also fun to listen to all of your records again.I am currently going through my collection of about 1600 records and digitizing most of it. I am also cataloging each one as I go into another awesome program called Delicious Library. I have been working on this off and on for about 5 years.

Great tips. Really appreciate this. Awhile back I started doing this - without the benefit of some of your tips - and was not pleased with the result so made the decision to re-buy what I could (opportunity cost was my argument). I'm at a point where I need to convert those white labels and other gems that I can't find digitally. I have a 1200 and a laptop, but I do have Serato SL3. If I run through Serato does this qualify as a suitable replacement for USB turntable / quality soundcard advice you propose? By the time I'm going into my lappy it's via USB from Serato so seems I should be golden, but don't want to make incorrect assumptions and waste any more time. Thanks again. Cheers.

I bought a record from a resale shop the other day and it turns out that your parent's old turntable from the 70s that's been sitting in your garage might not have the best sound quality. I recommend getting a new turntable or at least a new cartridge for these things, something I'm planning on doing once I get the money.

I have just started the process of ripping my vinyl(yeesh)and have found that despite using Technics 1210 the beats go out of sync when the file is imported into Traktor or even Ableton. I manually changed the beat markers for one of my tunes in Ableton and resaved the file, which worked, but took about 30 minutes. If I multiplied this effort by the number of tunes I have to rip, I would have died about 40 times before the collection would be finished. Anyone have any suggestions on any software that will help me quantize the beats in my rips?

This is really the big issue. Even Technic 1200s don't play records at a steady enough rate for the tracks to be useful if you're planning on letting your mixes ride for more than a bar (house). I've found that bumping the pitch up or down so it's not at zero and in that weird dead zone on the slider helps some, but it's still not perfect. Anyone else have any tips for making a 1200 drive more steady so the digital recordings play nice with perfectly quantized tracks?

I've got a Memorex USB turntable and have been attempting to Transfer some vinyl to MP3 lately... But have been having multiple problems. The First problem is that when I use the USB from my turntable, it (Usually) Over-blows the audio so loud that it fuzzes out. Another problem is when I use the RCA outputs to female extender to an Audio to 3.5 MM Jack converter, it comes in as MONO and then will only play on 1 speaker. Even when I try to multiply it to play two mono tacks on both speakers, it doesn't work right.
On one record I own, (John Waite, No Brakes) It keeps speeding up and slowing down. My only guess after reading this article is that I probably just need a better USB turntable... Any Help Anyone?

I'm a total beginner to turntables. I have a small collection of vinyl that I want to convert. I would like a versatile piece of equipment than can be used to both DJ and convert vinyl to lossless ...would that Stanton T92 do the job? Or is that only intended for vinyl ripping? I have a PC with a steinberg cl1 interface and ableton, if that's of any significance.

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